"It's awfully good of you, Tommy...."
I do not know how it was that neither of us heard Forester come up from the gate; all at once there was his foot on the step; as he came into the porch a soft sound drew him, he stared blankly on us for a moment and then laughed shortly.
"Oh! it's you this time, Bettersworth. I thought it might be that Garrett chap."
That was unkind of Forester, but there were extenuations. I found afterward that Belle had teased Flora to ask him and he had refused, thinking it unbrotherly when I was not to be invited, and he and Belle had quarrelled.
"I don't know as it matters to you"—Tommy was valiant—"whom she kisses, if I don't mind it."
"You? What have you got to do with it?"
"Well, a lot. I'm engaged to her."